Skein



M. 0. CLAUSS,

SKEIN.

APPLICATION men JULY r0, 1920.

1,401,521 j Patented Dec.27,19 21.

an van-r06 .1560? 0% G'Zaws so a the skein cannot be. unwound unless thebands are removed from the skein and the i To all whom it may concern:

umrsn srra'rs's PATENT- OFFICE.

IA: 01530 CLAUSE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.,

. ASSIGNOR TO THE (mm mm GOI- ramr, or man, new means, a conromrron ornew JERSEY.

4 Be it known that I Max O'rro CLAUSE, a citizen of the Unite -States,and resident of the borough of the Bronx, ,in the county of Bronx andthe city and State of New York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Skeins, of which the following is a dBSCIiPtlOIl. v

The invention relates to an improvement in'skeins.

Skeins of yarn, cotton, silk and the like for embroidery, knitting,crochetin and other urposes are put on the mar et in such orm that theymust be untwisted or unfolded before a strandor loop of thread can beremoved without entan ling the other threads or loops. Many e orts havebeen made to obviate'the necessity of untwisting or unfolding the skeinsbefore a small portion thereof can be used, and to this end, it has beenproposed to in'close' the skeins in packages so constructed that whenthe ends of the loops are cut the individual strands or single loops maybe drawn out one at a time without entangling the other threads. Thesepackages are more or less.

expensive to manufacture, and 'inclosing the skeins in this mannernecessitates'the withdrawal of a complete loopat one time, whether ornot only a portion of a loop is desired. 'It has also been proposed toput skeins on the market in' other forms in order to obviate theentangling ofvthe threads either in the skein itself or with the.threads work basket of the user. v None of these efforts have beensuccessful as a. commercial proposition because, so far asknown, theusual'and commercialfform of skein consists of a number .of l6ops sointer-folded that skein untwisted or: unfolded. i i

The ob'ect of the invention isfto roduce a skein ormed in such manner tat the skein may be put on the market and used in w the condition inwhich it comes from the I gether with the usual bandor winding machineand which may also be 0 ed out or unfolded into a ser es of si mplzloops, as .is the practice with skems wound according to the usualpractice now obtaining. The skein of the present invention is soconstructed that while it is in its relatively short market len h, heldtonds, it is in ofother skeinscontained in the receptacle orSpecification or Letters Patent. Pate t d D 27" 1921 .AppllcatlonfiledJuly 10, 1920, Serial H0- 395,309.

. comes from the skein winding machine, but

it also ma be opened up or unfolded into a skem of t e usuallength.

w The improved skein comprises a series of main or primary loops,"having associated with them a plurali of series of intermedlate orsubsldia oops. primary loops an intermediate or subsidiary loops are soassociated that the skein composed of them may be unwound by pulling onor drawing out the proper strand, or the intermediate or subsidiaryloopsmay be separated from the main or primary 100 to form the skein into aseries of simp e loops. The improved skein may be wound .in a nuinberofways and in the accompanying drawi I haveillustrated some of the out inthe appended claims.

ri re 1 is a diagrammatic view illustrate. mg t e fundamental principleinvolved the winding of the skein. I

Fig. 2 is a similar view, illustrating a sekcond phase in thedevelopment of the s em. I

' Fig. 3 is a view showing one complete cycle of the winding operationThese main or inthe preferred embodiment of the inven- 1 tion.

- 4 is a'plan view illustrating the complete marketable product, and,

Fig. 5 is, a diagrammatic view showi :lkightly modifi I m in. Thermroved skein of the present invention as il ustrated in Fig. 4 and woundac ethodof winding he T cording to the methods diagrammatically shown inFigs. 2, 3 or 5, consists of a continuous strand or thread formed into askein of comparatively short length, from which the thread may bewithdrawn without entangle ment of the looped thread" strands. I havefound in ractice that this can best be accomplish by winding the'threadin the neral form ofa triangle as shown at. 5, in

ig. 1 of the drawings,the being car- 4 of the skein.

the thread and within the circuit of the main or rimary loop a pluralityof secondary or sub idiary series of looped strands, as shown at 8, Fig.2, before closing the main or primary skein loop by completing the cycleof the winding evo ution.

In order that the several looped strands of the skein shall not becomeentangled with) I each other when the thread is withdrawn,

and the loops straightened out, it is essential that in the windingevolution the looped strands shall not cross or intersect each other.Accordingly, the thread is wound in the manner illustrated in Fig. 2,and starting from one of the horizontally spaced points-6, the thread isfirst carried to the other point 7, as at a, defining the opposite endof the skein, and is then returned upon itself, as at b, withoutintersecting the strand a, and carried around the starting point 6, andthen again returned, as at c, to the opposite end of the skein andcarried around the point 7, and then carried to the other of thehorizontally spaced points 6, as at d. From this latter point the threadis re turned upon itself to form the second subsidiar loop, as at e, andaround the point ".7, wit vwhich the other looped strands have til thedesired length of threa common engagement; Thethread is finally againreversed, as at f, and extended around and across the horizontallyspaced points 6 to the starting point. This completes a single windingevolution, and is re eated unhas been wound upon the spaced points. Inthis manner it will be seen that there is produced a relatively shortskein, which is made up first of the multiplicity of strands a and f,extending along either side of the triangular skein fi ure, and acrossthe wider end thereof, which constitute the primary main or skein loops,and within the circuit of which the plurality of series of intermediateor subsidiary loops, eachv consisting of a multiplicity of loopedstrands e, c and d, e

respectively, are formed.

After the thread length has thus been wound, a suitable binder,indicated at 9, is applied to the ortion of the primary looped strandsa, f, w ich extend between the horizontally spaced points above referredto, and a tubular label, indicated at 10, is then longitudinally slippedover the opposite ends of the primary and subsidiary skein loops to drawthe same together into more or less compact relation, as indicated inFig.

4. The ends of the skein thread, shown at 11, are left projecting inopposite directions from the wide end of the skein to which the binder 9is applied. In withdrawin the thread from the skein, the end of the tread at which the winding evolutions were started is grasped and ulled.Theindividual loo ed strands of tiie series of skein loops ma 'ng up thecompleted skein will then readily separate from all ,of the remaininglooped strands of the skein without becoming entangled with the latter.This, it will be seen, is due to the fact that these strands do notintersect with each other, so that as the strand is withdrawn, therewill be no ;cross or-positive pulling contact with the adjacent strand,as would be the case if the direction of pull was across or at an angleto the adjacent looped strand.

In Fig. 5 of the drawings I have illustrated another manner of windingthe thread or filament, wherein the skein is wound around the fourspaced points or supports designated 12 13, 14 and 15 respectively, thepoints 12 and 14, and 13 and 15 being arranged in laterally spacedrelation to each other, and defining the opposite ends of the skeinlength. The thread or filament is first engaged around the point 12, andthen carried to the point 13, and reversed, and extended again aroundthe point 12, and returned to the point 13 to form an intermediate orsubsidiary loop 9. The thread is then carried laterally to the point 15,then longitudinally around the point 14, and returned to the point 15 toform a second intermediate or subsidiary loop, as at h. The thread orfilament is now carried again around the point 14, and extended to thepoint 12 to close the main or primary loop, the latter loop beingdesignated by the letter i. Thus in this case it will be seen that ineach winding evolution in addition to the main or primary looped strandof the thread or filament, two subsidiary looped strands are formed inparallel relation with each other, and no one of these looped strandsintersects with any of the other looped strands. This operation isrepeated'until the desired length of the thread or filament has beenwound to complete the skein. The series of skein loops, each consistingof a multiplicity of looped strands, are then removed from the suporting points, and the two series of subsidiary loops 9 and h arebrought together in more or less compact relation, and the tubular label10 then engaged over the skein in the manner above described, afterwhich the binder is applied to the end of the primary skein loops 2',from the opposite sides of which the extremities of the thread orfilament extend. Therefore, it will be apparent that a skein wound inthis manner also possesses the several advantages hereinbefore referredto, and by pulling upon the end of the roper thread, the thread may bereadily wit drawn fromthe skein without liabllity of .entangling thelooped strands thereof.

It will be recognized from the above description that the improvedskein, in addition to' being unwindable without entanglement simply by(pulling on or" drawing out the proper threa is unfoldable into a skeinof greater length than the original skein by separating the intermediateor subsidiary loops from the main or primary loops. Whether the skeinwill be used in the form shown in Fig. 4, in which condition it comesfrom the skein winding machine, or whether the skein will be unfolded byseparating the intermediate from the main loops, will depend upon theconditions under which the skein isused. For private or household usethe skein will preferably be used in its original form, as shown in Fig.4, and for general manufacturing purposes it will' be opened out into aseries of sim le loops and the ends cut to constitute a series ofstrands. of uniform length.

From the foregoing description, considered in connection with theaccompanying drawings,.the construction and several advantages of myinvention will be readily understood. The loss of time and the manualexertion incident to the necessity of first winding the thread orfilament into a ball in the use of skeins in crocheting as has been thepractice heretofore is eliminated by means of the present invention.This skein is also advantageous in embroidery work, since any desiredlen h of the thread or filament ma be with rawn from the skein withoutisassociating the series of looped strands, or entangling the same witheach other, and such wlthdrawn length of the thread or filament cut off.

The embodiments'of the invention herein disclosed, and particularly thatillustrated in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive of the drawings contemplatethe-winding of one hundre yard skeins to produce a completed skein,which will be of relatively s ort length, without being unduly bulky. Itis, however, manifest that if desired'a greater or less length of thethread or filament may be comprised in each skein. It will, therefore,be understood that the present invention is not to be limited to thespecific exam les of the skein windings, herein referre to, but

1. A skein com osed of a continuous length of thread main or primaryseries of intermediate or subsidiary loops of substantially the samelength as the main or primary loops formed within the circuit of themain or primary loops.

2. A skein composed of a continuous length of thread formed into aseries of main or primary loops and a lurality of series of intermediateor subsi iary loops, said intermediate or subsidiary loops beingseparable from the main or primary loops so as t form a skein consistingof a series of simple loops.

3. A skein composed of a continuous length of thread formed into alurality of series of 100 sof comparatively 5 said loops being separableinto a skein of comparatively lon length and consisting of a series ofsimple loops.

4. A skein composed of a continuous length of thread formed into alurality of series of loops unwindable by pu lin on the thread or loofirst wound and un oldable into a skein oi greater length than the or.iinal skein consisting of a series of simp e loops. 1 i

5; A V skein composed of a continuous length of thread, having a seriesof main or primary "loops and a pluralit of series of intermediate orsubsidiary oops formed therein, all of said loops extending the entirelength of the skein, the main or primary and the intermediate orsubsidiary loops being in such relation with each other that uponpulling the thread first wound the skein is unwindable withoutentanglement.

6. A skein composed of a continuous length of thread formed into aseries of main or primary loops and a lurality of serles of intermediateor subsidiary loops of substantially the same length as themain orprimary loops.

' In testlmony my invention, I have si MAX ormed into a series of that Iclaim the foregoing as ed 111 name. TTO AUSS.

loops and a plurality of ort length,

